Page 25 of The Goddess is Angry
“Well, thanks. I guess.”
She followed me to my dorm and took a seat at my roommate’s desk. I sat on my bed and sighed. This would be easier if I could play my violin first. Everything was easier with music and Istillhadn’t figured out the ending of my piece.
“So, I’m sorry how I’ve been acting. It’s not just what witches did to Basilisks that made me distrust them. Someone murdered my parents in front of me when I was a baby. A reaper from Azren’s realm raised me with a little help from Azren. I was always certain it was witches who killed my parents, but now I don’t know what I think.
“You’re amazing and I’m not even upset with you. I’m taking something out on you that isn’t even your fault. You have amazing parents and every time you talk about them, I think about how mine were murdered. And it’s stupid because my adoptive mother was loving, kind, and went above and beyond. It's not even rational, but I keep doing it.”
George didn’t say anything, and I didn’t know what she was thinking. She got up and walked over to my bed.
“Lay down and scooch.”
I did what she asked, but I definitely didn’t know what she wanted until she laid down and snuggled with me. I tensed at first, but then I relaxed. This was nice, and she smelled amazing.
“I’m supposed to be helping you find out who killed your parents, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, but I think it’s connected to why my mom left the Academy of the Profane before she could graduate. I asked Oscar to help me with the ghosts, but Bethany refused to tell me. I’m in my mom’s old dorm room and I found a box that I think was hers, but there’s a blood lock on it. Azren says they can break it, but I think it should be my blood that opens it if it was hers. I’m just not ready to find out it might not be.”
And she squeezed me. She’d been great, and she washoldingme right now when I’d been nothing but nasty to her.
“So, take your time. Between you, me, Azren, and everyone else, we can start looking into your mom now that we’re all on the same page. And maybe you should meet the rest of my family. Everyone is going to the library for dinner on Friday, even Azren. You’ll see we aren’t perfect. We’re loud, messy, and my dad Balthazar is probably going to get glitter all over my dad Felix for no reason other than it pisses him off. He’s been doing that for nineteen years and it never gets old to him.
“My aunt will be there with Loki and Freya. I don’t know if my parents invited Lilith and Lucifer. It’s a get-together with my college friends and fate made you one of us. I get it and I can get over you kind of being a dick to me.”
“‘Kind of?’”
“Okay, you were a massive dick, but it was justwords.You snipped at me. It’s not like you started a whole-ass campaign and have been trying to get me expelled. And you didn’t throw a hex at my back.”
Kaylee Krauss. Yeah, I guess compared to her, I had been an angel. Though, I’d now met an angel, and he was kind of growly and possessive about his boyfriend. I didn’t know what that guy had done to Dexter, but Michael beat the shit out of him and tossed him halfway across the dining hall.
I heard them all bad mouthing her and I joined in, but I never found out what the real story was. I had just assumed it was a witch pissing contest, so I asked.
The actual story sounded too ridiculous to be true. You couldn’t sue a minor on Azren’s realm. It waswildit was even allowed on this one. I got that Minerva left a lot of stuff to George in her will, but her parents would be controlling all of that until she was eighteen. I knew who Minerva Krauss was, too. Azren spoke fondly of her and a lot of reapers respected her work in curse breaking because it saved lives and made their jobs easier. My adoptive mom had several of her books and had gone to hear her talk several times.
“The reapers on Azren’s realm loved her. They’d travel through the veil to this realm when she released a new book and they loved getting them signed and hearing her speak.”
“She would have loved that. Everyone remembers her as this brilliant witch who was a spinster, but she brought the filthiest books to the book club she was in with my mom and aunt. Like, my mom likes her smut and has five husbands and my aunt is handfasted to Loki, who has got up to shit in all kinds of genders and sometimes animals. Some of the books she brought were almost too dirty for them. My mom always encouraged us to read, but Matilda and I couldn’t join her book club while Minerva was suggesting books.”
“She sounds like a hell of a woman. Ketura raised me and Azren was always around. They all had amazing things to say about her.”
“Drake Nathara, did you just say something nice about a witch? I might die from shock. I seriously am. I’m literally dying from shock!”
George pretended to convulse and fell right off my bed onto the floor. She popped right up and tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“I’m a dodgeball player. Iknowhow to fall.”
She was also an adorable shade of purple because she was embarrassed. The strongest witch in this entire school just fell out of my bed being silly and now she was awkwardly worried I was going to make fun of her for it. I could literallyfeelthe power coming off of her, but I couldn’t believe I ever thought she was a threat.
“I didn’t grow up in a realm with witches and I’m still not sure one of them didn’t murder my parents, but now that I’ve met you, I’m willing to admit that not all witches are bad. Because girl, you could probably destroy this entire school and we’re probably going to win a ton of dodgeball games because of you, but you aren’t threatening at all.”
George threw my pillow at my face.
“You’ve said a lot of rude things to me, but that was the meanest.”
“I was actually trying to be nice right then.”
“You aren’t very good at it,” George laughed.
“You don’t strike me as someone who needs their ass kissed. Besides, West and Church do thata lot.”
